Приве́т! is an informal greeting, loosely translated as 'Hi!' or 'Hey!'. The more formal meeting is здра́вствуйте (ZDRAV-stvooy-tye)

Меня́ зову́т... literally means 'Me they call...' or 'They call me...', and is the Russian way of saying 'My name is...'. Similarly, как тебя́ зову́т? literally means 'How you they call?', or 'How do they call you?', and is how Russians ask 'What's your name?'.

Хорошо́ is a general catch-all word that means 'good', 'fine', 'OK', etc.

Студент and студентка both mean 'student', but the former is for males and the latter is for females. Feminine words often end in a -а or a -я, while masculine words often end in a consonant. See the page on gender for more details.

Russians often omit the copula, i.e., words like 'is', 'are', 'am' - any present tense form of the verb 'to be'. They also omit articles, which in English are 'a', 'an', and 'the'. Thus, 'I am a student' becomes Я студент / Я студентка.

Ну is an interjection, a filler word that corresponds to the English 'well'.

Russian distinguishes between formal and informal modes of address (register). Friends and family address each other using the informal register with the second person singular pronoun "ты" (you), while employees and students use the formal register with bosses and professors with the second person plural pronoun "вы" (you, referring to more than one person). Adults always use "ты" when talking to a child. In the vocabulary tables "Notes" column, the "X" denotes an exclusively informal term, and the "O" indicates an exclusively formal term.

It should now be obvious that тебя and вас are interchangeable, the former used in casual / familiar settings and the latter in formal settings; вас is also the plural form of "you". An example may be у вас есть хлеб? meaning, "do you have bread?" - being both plural and formal.

With the first phrase comes an interesting note. Because the function of words is mostly determined by declension, word order is mostly free. "Меня зовут Пётр" and "Пётр меня зовут" mean the same thing. "Mostly" is highlighted, however, because some combinations do not work, so avoid straying too far from the word order of the examples until later.

Russian names for people are composed of a given name, a patronymic, and a family name. The given name is a person's first name, and is usually chosen by the parents at birth. The patronymic is a derivation of the father's name, modified by gender. The family name is the name shared by the immediate family and passed down by the male descendants, but also modified by gender.

Russian lacks "is" and articles: Russian does not use the existence verb "быть" in the present tense, or articles such as "a", "an", or "the." Simply following "я" (I, me) with a noun suffices to say "I am a.." However, in written Russian, when the subject is a noun (not a pronoun), an em dash (—) functions as the verb. The proper sentence to say "Ivan is a student" is "Иван — студент."

Gender: The noun "студент" is the first instance of grammatical gender. "Студент" is used when the speaker is referring to himself or another male. "Студентка" is used when the speaker is referring to herself or another female.